NotMeNotYou said:
I have a counterargument: Why do you feel you're entitled to free stuff, and why do you feel you get to decide that some people should not be compensated for work they make and are able to distribute digitally?

artists don't automatically get compensation for their work by virtue of putting it out there, and users aren't entitled to tell them what to make. in the former case that's theft of the audience's money, and in the latter case that's slavery of the artist's talents.

the fact that their work is digitally distributed is reason enough share it far and wide. digital work, by its very nature, can have as many copies manufactured at zero cost to anybody who copies it.

an artist who creates work that can be copied forever should not be surprised when their work is copied forever. to rebel against this is to turn back the tide with a bucket.

If you want some form of proof: Check out how many people actually donate to mod creators on Nexusmods. The answer is basically nobody donates anything, ever. People consume without giving back. There are also other numbers from various developers that tracked how many people paid for their programs, and how many pirated them without ever paying. The numbers are against you in every case.

you can make numbers say whatever they want to the point of meaninglessness. anecdotal evidence from game developers mean nothing to me. in the first case, they have a confirmation bias and are likely to only seek out information that fits their worldview. in the second place, to imply that everybody who copied a video game was going to pay for that video game shows a special lack of understanding of reality.

i know a friend from Brazil, and the video game industry down there is not very good. nobody pays for anything because they're all too poor too. in fact, if you were to spend $60 on a piece of software instead of, say, food, you would be called a massive idiot, or barring that, rich as hell. to say that everybody should be forced to pay for luxury products, especially those products that cost $0 to manufacture, is a sign of immense privilege.

i wonder though why you bring up video games when they have nothing to do whatsoever with the issue of digital artists having their work copied? you do realize they are completely different industries?

i recommend the lead administrator of a site whose existence is based around the copying of other people's work not complain about users copying that work. edit: and the DMCA doesn't protect the site's administration from uploading copyrighted materials, so i hope no prosecutors notice the 934 uploads from the lead administrator. of course, if they do, i also recommend you have written permission for all 934 instances of copyrighted materials before the court case hits.